He was the only young man she had ever known with anything like the same degree of intimacy; and Ludovico, as we know, was not devoid of qualities calculated to win a lady's love.
But Violante knew right well that Ludovico did not love her, and that there had never been any probability that he should do so; and, had she any lingering doubt on the subject, the good Assunta took very good care to dispel it.

And there was a bitterness in this knowledge which did much towards producing in Violante the state of mind that has been described.

She was not in love with Ludovico, but she had liked him--he was the only man she had ever liked at all.

She knew that she was to be married to him if he could be persuaded to marry her, and if she were sufficiently obedient to marry him.

She thought that no man could ever love her, and she knew very certainly that this man did not.